Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Mining Asteroids: Billionaires' Plan

James Cameron and Investors Seek to Lasso and Mine an Asteroid

Apr 24, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

The filmmaker is joining Google and Microsoft
execs in a venture to mine asteroids for commercial use that would ‘add
trillions to global GDP.’ But while lassoing an asteroid could be big
business, it might just be a wild ride into space.

Imagine
riding through space on your trusty scooter and, feeling the urge to
lasso an asteroid, reaching out and doing just that. It is a top-notch,
boyhood sci-fi fantasy. If the scooter were pink I would ride it, too.

After his journey to the icy-dark ocean depths, film director James Cameron
is heading to space. He is advising a company called Planetary
Resources, details of which will be unveiled today. The press release
announces the stealthy company’s mission is to “overlap” space
exploration and natural resources with a plan that will “add trillions
of dollars to the global GDP,” and “help ensure humanity’s prosperity.”

Several well-known billionaires are forming the new company Planetary
Resources with plans to send a robotic spacecraft to mine precious
metals from an asteroid and bring them back to Earth. Google executives
Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and their businesspartners say the enterprise will "add trillions to the global GDP."
But to whom do those trillions belong — the company, or everyone? Does a
private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are
celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?
"The law on this is not settled and not clear," said Henry Hertzfeld,
professor of space policy and international affairs at George Washington
University. "There are lots of opinions on the status here, and nobody
is necessarily right because it's complicated."

SEATTLE (AP) — Using space-faring robots to mine precious metals from
asteroids almost sounds easy when former astronaut Tom Jones describes
it — practically like clearing a snow-covered driveway.
Jones, an
adviser to a bold venture that aims to extract gold, platinum and rocket
fuel from the barren space rocks, said many near-Earth asteroids have a
loose rocky surface held together only weakly by gravity.